Incorporating Science, Economics, and Sociology in Developing Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards in International Trade Proceedings of a Conference (2000) / Chapter Skim
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issues in international trade must integrate all the sciences to develop practices for risk assessment, management, and communication that recognize international diversity in culture, experience, and institutions. Uniform international standards can help, but no such norms are likely to be acceptable to all countries.
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The goal was to explore the critical roles and the limitations of the biological and natural sciences and the social sciences, such as economics, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, and political science in the management of SPS issues and in judging whether particular SPS measures create unacceptable barriers to international trade. The conference's objective also was to consider the elements that would compose a multidisciplinary analytical framework for SPS decision making and needs for future research.
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, and how consumer concerns and the benefits and costs of regulation can be accounted for in SPS management (Chapter 7~. Case studies offer insights into the degree to which the different sciences and disciplinary approaches have been and are being integrated in the management of SPS issues in international trade.
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How do cultural values, beliefs, and politics influence the ways that different countries and regions approach issues of risk analysis for SPS issues? How might the various sciences be better integrated or be used in a more complementary fashion in risk analyses used for SPS decision making?
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In contrast, the increasing use of genetically modified soybeans and corn in the United States implies that much of the supply of these products to the food processing industry will be from transgenic crops. If major overseas markets block the importation of foodstuffs incorporating the products of GMOs, then the resulting trade tensions will dramatically overshadow the beef hormone issue.
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Provisions of the SPS Agreement The SPS Agreement is the strongest current international management tool for addressing SPS issues. It attempts to specify a framework within which individual countries should design their SPS measures (see Chapters 2 and 6~.
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All SPS measures must still be based on the assessment of risk even if they take into account other considerations, and measures should be used consistently so that they do not provide arbitrarily higher or lower levels of protection in different cases (Article 5.5~. SPS measures should also not be more trade restrictive than necessary (Article 5.6~.
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The agreement, disputes settled under it, and the ongoing and future trade negotiations all contribute to the development of precedents analogous to domestic rule making and judicial processes for regulation. These activities serve as fore for countries to define common principles for the management of SPS issues in international trade.
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For example, a conference participant commented on an apparent contradiction in some current approaches to managing SPS issues, noting that as the social and life sciences are recognizing that they need to be more holistic and integrative, trade agreements can be subject to a reductionist perspective by putting complex, multidimensional issues in separate boxes. The management of SPS issues in international trade requires an integrated framework.
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A striking contrast between nations is the emphasis on quantitative risk assessment in the United States to estimate the risks and uncertainties of cancer versus the use of more qualitative, weight-of-evidence approaches in Europe. With increased globalization and participation of disparate cultures in international trade, Jasanoff predicted that risk debates will become more numerous.
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This suggests that risk assessments of important SPS trade issues will need to be both transdisciplinary and transnational if they are to be effective in contributing to the resolution of these issues. A participant at the conference posed the question, "For what purpose are we looking at cultural differences in SPS management?
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Thus, a risk analysis had to be conducted with Hass avocados and no other avocado, and the analysis had to be conducted in the state of Michoacan that is the primary export source for these avocados. Models and extrapolations played no role in this risk assessment.
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But even organisms that seem "well known" have their surprises. For example, if one is performing a risk analysis on a well-studied crop plant that has been carefully engineered using recombinant DNA technology, it might be expected that the risk assessment would be a simple matter.
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An outstanding question is the relationship between sound risk assessment protocols for different SPS risk sources. This is particularly important because the SPS Agreement includes consistency of treatment across risk sources as a criterion for evaluating SPS measures.
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Finally, economics plays a role in determining which disagreements over SPS measures merit the bureaucratic resources required for consultations between countries and, ultimately, WTO disputes. Economic analysis was seen as contributing to the management of SPS issues in several ways.
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One participant said that costbenefit analyses of trade barriers have the effect of marginalizing the concerns of many people. David Victor made a point related to Bureau and Marette's paper regarding trade and welfare impacts in his discussion of the three disputes on SPS measures that have been decided by the WTO Appellate Body (Chapter 6~.
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Victor argued that the fact that the cases found the challenged SPS measures to be illegitimate does not indicate that the agreement is biased against strict SPS regulation. Rather, they involved measures that were readily established as not based on sound risk assessment.
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At the same time, it was clearly recognized in the conference discussion that safety and other concerns give trade protectionists an opportunity to cheat on market access; cultural and ethical arguments can be used to cover a potentially unlimited number of exceptions to free trade. The discussion focused on the need for an evolving approach to the management of SPS issues in international trade that balances the need for discipline in market access with some safety valves that recognize countries' own desires and, in some cases, their needs for transition time.
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· As trading partners seek to establish a discipline on SPS measures and coordinate their policies, it is important to build some safety valves into the process in order to recognize marked differences in regulations due to differences across countries in the evaluation of risk sources and events at risk. Researchers and policymakers could consider the characteristics of safety valves, including compensation, that when built into the system may smooth establishment of reasonable SPS discipline, maintain support for freer international trade, and reasonably protect countries' abilities to manage SPS risks.
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A key consideration for future progress in the management of SPS issues in international trade is the recognition that risk analysis is an iterative process. Risk assessment is not followed in lock step by risk management and then risk communication.
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22 SPS PROCEEDINGS range of sciences and recognition of different viewpoints may be key elements in meeting this test over time.
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